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Person: Wall, Alessandra

I got into the health and fitness game late in life; for some reason I waited until my early 30s to think about training in any consistent way. From age 30-37 I focused on getting stronger both physically and mentally through CrossFit and the olympic weightlifting. It felt great to develop power, strength and mental fortitude, but all those skills weren’t really getting used outside of the gym. The thought of doing something like parkour or MovNat had crossed my mind, but, honestly, I had so little time between work, kids and the rest of life to learn about anything else.

In 2015 I attended a conference in Austin, Tx, and joined a friend in a parkour workshop. The movements and practice was simple, something anyone could do, yet I managed to injure myself (a trend I have yet to break in my parkour practice). None of it mattered – that the movements were simple, or that I left with a bloody toe and a bruised knee – that weekend I fell in love with parkour.

I looked up the San Diego parkour community the minute I got home, and signed on for a weekend workshop in Boston later that summer. I knew I was hooked, because I was willing to challenge any insecurities I had about being a women in a male dominated practice, or being nearly 20 years older than most of the people I trained with. It didn’t hurt that those things were never brought up as issues among the people I trained with.

What I loved and still love about the practice is that feeling of possibility: it’s being 39 and knowing I can scale a wall, it’s the grace of the movement (at least the way I picture it in my head, I’m pretty sure the reality of my movement doesn’t match my vision), it’s the fact that I can train along side 17 year olds and together we are joined in a common love, the love of movement.